Firsts

In our two weeks as a family of three, we've had so many firsts together!

A few days after we got home from the hospital, Liam had his first (sponge) bath:

He did really well! I thought he'd scream the whole time, but he only whimpered a little towards the end when he got a little chilly.

We had our first pediatrician's appointment last Monday and Liam passed inspection with flying colors! He was almost back to his birth weight at less than a week old. He was 7lbs 5oz at birth, 7 lbs even when we left the hospital, and back up to 7lbs 4 oz at his appointment. (Today, at his two week appointment, he weighed in at 7lbs 6 oz.) Everything else looked good, including his cord stump (which fell off later that day) and his circumcision, which has healed completely.

Here he is before his appointment:

Wednesday, after his photo shoot, we had an appointment with our lactation consultant-- we weren't having any problems, I just wanted to have her look us over and make sure we're establishing good nursing habits. I am still using a nipple shield, but it's not effecting my supply, so she said not to worry about it. She weighed Liam before I fed him, then after I finished and determined that he's eating between 3-4 oz per feeding. This was a huge boost of confidence for me regarding our success breastfeeding. He's getting plenty to eat and I've added in a pumping session every morning right after he eats as well as some afternoons-- these bottles of pumped milk have freed me to have other people feed him. (As of tonight, I have 34 oz of milk in the freezer, which doesn't sound like much, but it's over 8 feedings worth of milk! Considering my milk came in a little over a week ago, I think that's pretty good!!)

Speaking of which, Saturday night was our first night out without him (and last night was our second). My brother came into town to see Liam and my cousin (who has 5 year old quadruplets) offered to babysit so that we could go to dinner with him and my parents. We left her with several bottles and stepped out for a few hours-- he did great and we did pretty well ourselves.

My brother Eric holding Liam:

Eric, Mom, Dad, Me & Rob at dinner:

Last night, Rob gave Liam a bottle around midnight so that I could get some sleep. (I would post a picture but we lost our camera last week. Gasp!! If it doesn't turn up this week, we'll be buying a new one.) It was his first time to feed Liam and his excitement over it was simply precious. Rob said, "He looked at me the way he looks at you when you feed him! I love the happy sounds he makes when he's eating! I got to hold him the same way you do when I burped him!" It was such a sweet and private bonding time for the two of them. I don't want to use the bottle of milk that I pump each morning for his midnight feeding (I would never be able to build my freezer stash!), but if I can make my afternoon pumping session a regular thing so that I can freeze one bottle and have Rob feed him the other, I would love for this to be their special time each night. (Bonus: Mommy gets more sleep.)

Things are going so well-- we have a beautiful healthy baby boy and although we are exhausted, we're happier than we've ever been.